Bottles are used to store a variety of liquids from water to alcoholic beverages to coffee. Bottles provide easy portability and storage of liquids and come in a variety of different sizes. Although variations exist, most bottles have the same general shape. They have a large base extending into a body and tapering into a shoulder and then into a neck with an opening often referred to as a mouth. Additionally, most bottles have a reusable cap to cover the mouth of the neck to allow consumers to open the cap and enjoy the contents and close the cap to reserve the rest for later. Other bottles, such as those in wine and champagne bottles have one time use caps where the cap is not meant to be reused. Although bottles afford the consumer a reliable container in which they are able to store their desired liquids, the current design of bottles has certain disadvantages.
One particular example is cooling bottles used to store beverages and the beverages contained within. The majority of bottled beverages are consumed chilled or at a low temperature. To achieve the desired low temperature of the beverage, consumers have placed their bottles inside refrigerators to cool down the beverage. However, once they remove the bottle from the refrigerator, the bottle is exposed to the environment and the temperature begins to rise as heat transfer between the environment, the bottle, and the beverage occur. Consumers then have a choice to either put the bottle back in the refrigerator or leave the bottle out. Most of the time, consumers leave the bottle out as access to a refrigerator is not always available and may not be conveniently accessed such as when holding a private event at a hall, an event at a beach, sitting by the poolside, or barbecuing in the backyard. As an alternative to refrigeration, consumers often resort to use of ice chest or ice buckets to keep their drinks cool.
Ice chest or ice buckets provides consumers with access to a portable cooling apparatus which helps keep the bottled beverages cold. Due to the shape and size of typical bottles, the typical bottle presents several challenges to using an ice chest or ice bucket. For example, in order to keep the bottle cold, the bottle must be in direct contact with the ice. Indeed, in order to keep the bottle and its contents cool, the bottle must be reinserted into the ice contained in the ice chest or bucket. Typically, the design of a bottle is optimized to enable the bottle to carry the largest volume of liquid while having the smallest surface area. This design approach most often results in a cylindrical bottle with a large base and body. However, this shape results in a minimal surface area of the bottle. This minimal surface area to volume ratio reduces the efficiency of the heat transfer required to cool down the bottle or keep the bottle and its contents cool.
Due to the large base, inserting the bottles by the base is very difficult. The large surface area of the base exerts the force being applied to the bottle in a large area, making it difficult and requiring more force to put the bottle into the ice chest or ice bucket. The neck and mouth portion has a smaller area and it is possible to insert the bottle top side first. By inserting the top side first, the force is concentrated on the cap and mouth portion of the bottle which requires less overall force to insert the bottle. However, the neck portion does not contain a large volume of liquid and thus reduces the overall heat transfer rate of the entire volume of liquid in the bottle. Additionally, by putting the bottle upside down, you are putting the bottle at risk for leaking. After opening a bottle, it is common for a cap to be incorrectly put back on. People may not have closed their caps tight enough, or in cases of wine and champagne bottles, the caps cannot be easily reinserted. This will lead to the beverage leaking, particularly if the contents of the bottle are under pressure such as champagne. Inserting a traditional bottle by the tope is not desirable for these reasons.
In light of the above, it would be advantageous to provide a bottle to store beverages having high heat transfer rate with the ability to be easily inserted into a medium such as ice. It would further be advantageous to provide a beverage bottle having a narrow tip to allow easy insertion into a medium. It would further be advantageous to provide a bottle with a surface area to volume ratio optimized to promote the efficient heat transfer between the liquid contained in the bottle and its surroundings. It would further be advantageous to provide a beverage container with a cap having a large surface area in which the bottle may stably rest. It would further be advantageous for the cap to be made of low thermally conductive material to minimize the heat transfer through the cap between the beverage within the bottle and the environment and to prevent condensation forming on the cap. It would further be advantageous to provide a cap sized to allow a user to easily grip and handle the bottle by the cap.